»[V]nnd yhr wort das frisset vmb sich wie der krebs«

Abstract

Abstract Martin Luther’s 1522 translation of 2. Tim 2,17a, »vnnd yhr wort das frisset vmb sich wie der krebs«, is depicted as a paradigm shift in the history of cancer metaphors. This study aims to outline this turning point from a philological perspective by tracing this translation, its embedding in theological discourse, and its sources (especially the metaphor of ›creeping‹ cancer - »ut cancer serpit« in the Latin Vulgate, dominant in antiquity and the Middle Ages, and first introduced as a quotation from Ovid’s Metamorphoses -, and a sermon by Johannes Geiler von Kaysersberg). Furthermore, the article also traces its transmission into medical discourse and the English language in the 16thcentury, demonstrating how the primarily protestant and German metaphor of ›devouring‹ cancer becomes interdenominational, interdiscursive and translingual in just one century, being ultimately included in the 1611 King James Bible as »[a]nd their word will eat as doth a canker«.